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Author Topic:   Question About the Universe
NosyNed
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Posts: 8996
From: Canada
Joined: 04-04-2003


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Message 26 of 373 (508012)
05-09-2009 9:55 PM
Reply to: Message 25 by alaninnont
05-09-2009 9:10 PM


Gravity
This is off topic but I started thinking about it when the speed of light was mentioned. As far as we know, nothing moves faster than the speed of light. How about gravity? If, hypothetically the sun vanished at this instant, would the pull of gravity it exerts on us cease instantly or would it take eight minutes as light would?
It would take 8 minutes. As I recall this has been demonstrated to be true by observations of the moons of Jupiter.
The "speed of light" isn't comparable to a speed limit on a highway. It is a fact about the nature of the thing called spacetime.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 25 by alaninnont, posted 05-09-2009 9:10 PM alaninnont has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 28 by cavediver, posted 05-10-2009 6:31 AM NosyNed has not replied
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